BREAKING NEWS!! Major Amtrak Derailment in Washington!

[Erik-Gorb-Hamilton]

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

It wasn't until I heard on the news that this was the inaugural Amtrak train for this line. It makes me wonder if BNSF didn't properly prepare for this service and if the tracks weren't in the best shape.

BNSF doesn't own the line anymore. Sound Transit owns all this section now. The tracks were all rebuilt to Class 4 Standard. Very scary for me. Wasn't on the train but I was the very last paying customer to use the old Tacoma Station last night at 10:00PM. Worst wreck I have seen in all my 19 years here

Wasn't that the Freighthouse Square station that shut down?

Nope. That is the brand new station that just opened up.

[LARDLOGO]

[IanMP]

I guess the engineer didn't slow fast enought tomeet the PSO's speed limit

[NathanFromEngland]

I guess the engineer didn't slow fast enought tomeet the PSO's speed limit

AFAIK, i believe the tracks were not maintained properly.

[cabman701]

but I read one report that said the train was doing 81 MPH when it hit that curve. Max track speed is supposed to be 79.

From photos I've seen, the speed limit was 30 MPH.

Agreed... the speed for the curve should have been 30. It appears at this point the train hit the curve at track speed and didn't slow down. No way it could have stayed on the tracks.

It will be interesting to see how the "fault" on this come out. Was the engineer unfamiliar with the route? Or possibly distracted by all the hype that had been going on with this being the inaugural trip?